This invention relates to methods of effectively making dental impressions and compositions to prepare the dentition for the taking of dental impressions.
For a number of years protective gloves have been worn by all personnel in dental operatories when hands will contact dental patients as an asepsis protection or shield to or against patient to patient or patient to operatory personnel transfer of disease or toxins. During this period of time there has been a well reported problem with materials in and on latex gloves inhibiting the surface cure of vinyl polysiloxane dental impression materials. The surface cure of the dental impression is critical to an exact detailed production of the dental prosthetic utilizing the dental impression. The materials suspected of being transferred from the gloves are materials such as the sulfur containing compounds that are residues of the manufacturing process of latex gloves, see Dent Mater 9:209-213, May, 1993, "Implications of the presence of dithiocarbamate in latex gloves", B. E. Causton.sup.1, F. J. T. Burke.sup.2 , N. H. F. Wilson.sup.2 the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. These materials are present to varying degrees. Surface inhibition causes a loss of detail at the interface between the impression material and the dentition. The problem appears to occur when the surface of a glove or even an instrument or object such as a cotton swab or retraction cord that was handled by a gloved hand, has any of the inhibiting substance on it and then contacts the dentition. This seems to result in the transfer of the inhibiting substance to dentition surfaces that are subsequently contacted by the dental impression material. This has been observed to inhibit the optimal cure of the impression material at the interface. This results in a loss of detail at the very place where detail is generally most important and critical. The production of good and aesthetically pleasing dental facings, crowns and other prosthetic parts as well as their fit and superior efficacy is affected by the quality of detail in the dental impression.
It has been the general practice to clean the area of dentition that is to have its impression taken with water rinsing and drying with air. Flour of pumice is also used in some instances. This cleaning has been employed to remove blood, saliva, ground tooth structure and other debris. It has been unknown to employ a method to effectively decontaminate dentition from glove imparted vinyl polysiloxane cure inhibition. This inhibition, in part at least, is believed to be due to the fact that the impression material is platinum catalyzed and is from imperical observation inhibited by those interfering substances in or associated with latex gloves. Further, it is common to add surfactants to vinyl polysiloxane products in order to reduce their inherent hydrophobic nature, rendering them somewhat hydrophilic, and thus it is believed adding to the problem by "pulling in" the contaminating inhibiting material.
Hydrogen peroxide has been used as an antiseptic in the mouth for many years. During routine oral examination and cleaning, the scaling of the teeth may disturb the gingival soft tissue. There may be bleeding and numerous bacteria that are released into the mouth. The hygienist will often instruct the patient to rinse their mouth with a one to one aqueous dilution of dilute hydrogen peroxide for several days after the visit. This is to help the tissue heal faster.
In a procedure to produce a Dicor.RTM. MGC Inlay (Dicor is a trademark of Dentsply International, Inc.), one of the steps is to coat the prepared tooth with a surfactant to allow the imaging powder to coat the surface. The Dicor MGC Imaging liquid consists of 30% Tween 20 (Polysorbate 20), the remainder being water. This solution is painted on the prepared tooth, blown to a thin film and then coated with powder. This product was introduced in February 1990 and has been used in the mouth for almost four years with virtually no complaints.
An object of the invention is to provide a method of producing a superior dental impression.
A further object is to provide a decontaminating composition that will prepare dentition for receipt of dental impression material providing for the taking of a superior dental impression.
An object of the invention is to minimize the necessity of making remakes of the dental impressions.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when viewed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which set forth certain embodiments of the invention.